Well, I feel stupid....

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

This past weekend, we noticed that the drain in the shower wasn’t draining. I took a shower in the morning, and that afternoon there was still shin-deep water in the tub.

So I went and bought some Liquid Plumr and set about trying to clear the drain. Didn’t work. The water was running out extremely slowly; bad news as it’s been in the high 90s low 100s all week and we wanted to shower. Bought some “Power Jet” stuff that’s supposed to blast the clog out. You can’t use it if there’s Liquid Plumr in the environment though (as there’s a danger of splashback, a bad idea for a product with sodium hydroxide. So I used the shop vac to get the rest of the water out, cleared the drain as much as I could, and blasted away. No luck. Tried again. No luck. Tried Liquid Plumr one more time. No joy.

So I called RotoRooter, who showed up this morning. The guy walked into the bathroom, turned the water on, and flipped the lever that opens the drain. Out flows the water.

That’s right, folks. I’ve been trying to clear a closed drain for a week.

I blame it on the cat.

#2

My dad once had a stopwatch that quit running. He took it back where he bought it and complained. The concerned clerk asked “How often do you wind it?”

:confused: “Wind it??” :smack:

It happens.

#3

I read this far into the OP when I said to myself “I know exactly where this is going.”

Been there, done that.

#4

Ditto. Three days with that “clog” until I finally called the apartment manager. Who, unfortunately, also happened to be my father-in-law.

Yeah, took awhile to live that one down.

#5

I almost snorted at my desk.
Almost.

By the way, you narrowly missed the greatest typo ever. My BlackBerry read “snorted” as “aborted”. That, in fact, did make me guffaw.

#6

My garage door opener just stopped working one day and I thought it had given up the ghost. For a week I manually open and closed the thing while I did research on line for possible problems I could troubleshoot myself and even started pricing new units.
It wasn’t until the following week that I noticed another outlet in the garage had no power.
Went down in the basement, flipped the breaker back on (must have blown during a power surge) and TA-DA! power back to the garage and the opener worked again. :smack:

#7

My aunt once bought special balloons for her daughter’s birthday party, blew them up, and then called the party store to complain that they wouldn’t float. Eventually they determined the problem: she blew them up with breath, not helium.

#8

I just lost a whole freezerful of frozen food. Check the freezer. Fine. Gorram it! The power strip must have gotten turned off. Nope. Damn it, that means the power strip is shot! Nope. Shit, the circuit breaker must have blown. Nope. FUCK!!! Is the freezer still plugged into the power strip? Yes.

However, the power strip does need to be plugged INTO the wall outlet to get power. :smack:

In my defense, their were workmen in my apartment while I was gone for over a week. One of them must have unplugged the power strip to use the outlet. Bastard.

#9

hahahaha… wipes away tear. I’m not laughing at you, im laughing with everyone around you :slight_smile:

thanks for the good afternoon pick me up!

#10

I had the house re-tiled a month ago and during the process the toilets were removed and replaced. Two of them worked fine but the third didn’t get tested until bedtime. It flushed and filled normally up to the point that the water cut off. rattle rattle BANG BANG BANG rattle BANG for 30 seconds or so.

Good old Google tells me it’s water hammer and to cut the water off at the main and then turn on all the faucets in the house yadda yadda yadda. Did it, twice. Call plumber and wait three days. Plumber flushes and rattle rattle BANG BANG BANG rattle BANG for 30 seconds or so.

Then Mr. Happy Plumber sits on the floor next to the toilet, reaches over and turns the valve all the way on. Flush, fill, silence.

The next rattle rattle BANG BANG BANG rattle BANG was the sound of my head hitting the wall while the marbles inside it rattled around.

#11

I bought a new phone with built in caller ID. Connected the phone, made a few calls, nothing on the display. Place and recieve calls with no trouble, just nothing on the display. Plug the old phone back in and caller ID is great. Plug new phone back in, still nothing. I call their tech support, the young ladies first question, “Are the batteries turned the right way?” My response, “Batteries?”

#12

I once called an electrician to come look at our bathroom light, which did not turn on no matter what I did.

It’s amazing what replacing the bulb can do.

#13

One winter morning, just after my SO had left for a business trip, I noticed it was kind of cold in the house. I figured the strong wind was the cause, and headed off to work. Get home that night, and it’s colder still. Hmm. Not good. Go play with the thermostat. Maybe the programming is screwed up. Nope. That’s not is. Crank the temperature up, and go wave my hand in front of some of the vents. Slightly warm, but no air. Go check the furnace. I don’t smell gas. Nothing obviously wrong.

So I dig out the phone book, and start calling around. Luckily, I found someone that could be out shortly. He arrives, and I take him to the basement. He opens up the furnace, pokes around, and asks me to go turn up the thermostat again. Then I hear " I found it" from the basement.

Did you know that furnaces have switches? I didn’t. It does. It looks just like a light switch. My SO had turned it off when he changed the furnace filter, and didn’t turn it back on.

At least I got the furnace cleaned out a bit, since I was paying the repairman to be there anyway.

#14

The Boss wanted me to change a plug on a cable. I’m not familiar with the plug, so I take it to a co-worker, and ask him how to remove the cover.

“Looks like it just unscrews.”

“No, I already tried that. Doesn’t work. I think it takes a special tool.”

Co-worker immediately unscrews cover; hands it back without saying anything.

I go back to my cube, and start trying to figure out how to remove the plug, now that the cover’s off. I tried for about an hour; pushing, pulling, twisting but nothing works. I notice that the plug has an inner collar that can be pushed down; revealing a small opening.

“Aha!” says I. “If I push the collar down, I can use a small screwdriver, and the plug will come off!”

Didn’t work. I tried for another 30 minutes, but the plug was firmly attached. It finally dawned on me that I was going to cut the cable end off no matter what, and throw it away. All I had to do in the first place was just use some wirecutters.

I spent 90 minutes trying to remove a plug that was going in the trash.

Can I go home now?

#15

Not sure if this counts but I once bought a cornetto. Took the wrapper off. Approached the nearest bin. Threw the cornetto in the bin and kept the wrapper in my other hand.
Brain. You sent the message to the wrong hand.

#16

First time I drove my daughter’s new car, I had to AAA to come out and see why I could not get the key out of the ignition no matter what I did.

The guy came out, sat down, put the car in park, and pulled the key out. :smack:

I’d been so used to driving a manual that I’d forgotten that with an automatic, it has to be in park.

#17

And how many of us have put the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the pantry?

#18

And the lettuce in the freezer?

#19

And the TV remote in the fridge.

#20

And walked into a room and turned the light off.